[9.] Ninthly, The Lord will be signally present with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers, because they loont leave him, hut stick close to him, and to his interest, gospel, and glory ; and will cleave fast to his zvord, ivor- ship, and ways, in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dange7^s, come ivhat ivill on it, Josh. xxiv. ; Jer. xiii. 11 ; Acts xi. 23. You may take away my life, said Basil, but you cannot take away my comfort ; my head, but not my crown ; yea, saith he, had I a thousand lives, I would lay them all down for my Saviour's sake, who hath done abundantly more for me. John Ardley professed to Bonner, when he told him of burning, and how ill he could endure it, that if he had as many lives as he had hairs on his head, he would lose them all in the fire before he would lose his Christ or part with his Christ. It was a common thing among the martyrs to make all haste to the fire, lest they should miss of that noble entertainment. Gordius the martyr said, It is to my loss if ye bate me anything of my sufferings. The sooner I die, said another, the sooner I shall be happy. Ps. Ixiii, 1, ' 0 God, thou art my God, early wiU I seek thee ; my soul thirsteth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;' ver. 8,
536 THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD
' My soul followeth hard after tliee,' &c. This notes, (1.) The strength of his intention; (2.) The strength of his affection; (3.) The constancy of his pursuit ; and all this in a dry and barren wilderness, and in the face of all discouragements, and in the want of all outward encourage- ments, Dan. ix. 3 ; Ps. cxix. 20. Whatever the danger or distress be, the psalmist is peremptorily resolved to cleave close to the Lord, and to follow hard after the Lord : Ps. xliv. 17, 'All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant ; ' ver. 18, ' Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;' ver. 19, 'Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death ;' see 2 Tim. i. 11, 12, and ii. 8-10; Eph. vi. 19, 20; Col. iv. 3, 18. In the face of all dangers, deaths, distresses, miseries, &c., God's faithful servants will own the Lord, and cleave to his ways, and keep close to his wor- ship and service, let persecutors do their worst : ver. '22, ' Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,' Kom. viii. 36. It is a question when, and upon what occa- sion, this psalm was written. Some think that it was written upon occasion of the seventy years' captivity in Babylon ; but this cannot be, because that captivity was tlie fruit and product of their high iniquities, as the Scriptures do everywhere evidence, Dan. ix. 11-14. They could not say in Babylon, ' For thy sake we are killed all the day long ;' but for sin's sake, for our wickedness' sake, we are killed all the day long. It is more probable that this psalm was penned upon the occasion of the horrible persecution of the church under Antiochus Epiphanes, unto which I guess Paul hath reference towards the latter end of that 11th to the Hebrews. In this 22d verse you have three things observable, (1.) The greatness of their sufferings : 'they were killed,' amplified by a similitude, ' as sheep to the slaughter.' (2.) The cause : not for their sin, but ' for thy sake.' (3.) The continuance : how long, even ' all the day long.' Their sufferings are great and long. That tyrant Antiochus made no more reckoning of taking away of their lives, than a butcher doth of cutting the throats of the poor sheep, Dan. xi. ; and as butchers kill the sheep without making conscience of the effusion of their blood, even so did that tyrant Antiochus destroy the saints of the Most High, without making the least conscience of shedding innocent blood. And as butchers think well of their work, and are glad when they have butchered the poor sheep, so did this tyrant Antiochus ; he thought he did God good service in butchering of the holy people, and rejoiced in that bloody service ; and yet not- withstanding all the dreadful things that these blessed souls suffered, they still kept close to God, and close to his covenant, and close to his ways, and close to his w^orship. And Austin observes,!^ that though the heathen sought to suppress the growth of Christianity by binding, butchering, racking, stoning, burning, &c., yet still they increased and multiplied, Exod. i. 12, and still they kept close to God and his ways. The church was at first founded in blood, and it has thriven best when it has been moistened with blood. It was at first founded in the blood of Christ, and ever since it has been moistened or watered, as it were, ^ Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xxii. cap. 6.
WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THEIR GREATEST TROUBLES. 537
with the blood of the martyrs. The church of Christ in all ages hath been like the oal^, which liveth by his own wounds ; and the more limbs are cut off, the more new sprouts. Oh, how close to God, his ways and worship, did the saints keep in the ten persecutions ! ' They have fol- lowed the Lamb whithersoever he went,' Eev. xiv. 4, 5. If they would have complied with the ways of the world, and the worship of the world, and the customs of the world, they might have had ease, honour, riches, preferments, &c., Heb. xi. 35; but nothing could work them off from God or his ways ; and therefore he will certainly stand by them, and cleave to them, and be signally present with them in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers. But,